Name sounds like a late eighties acid house outfit, but nay, tis of the New Wave. Apparently I knew lots of their songs already (such as Making Plans For Nigel) without remembering the name. Anyway, inventive, punk influenced, quite poppy in a still interesting early eighties fashion, with some impressively modern sounding electronics. Just great melodies and vocals.

Hey music exploring forest folk.
I'm sure you're aware of it but just in case you aren't then the best way to listen to new music is a site called http://www.pandora.comType in the name of a band or a song and it breaks the song down into "genes" (e.g. heavy drums mixed with melancholy guitar etc etc.). It then makes a whole radio station based on that song playing bands or songs with similar styles. I've found hundreds of new bands I've never heard of through it. its completely free and legal....I say legal...it's legal in America and will ask you to sign up with a Zip Code. Just google a Zip Code and put it in and it works. Yay. the most amazing site ever!!!! I know i sound like an advert/spammer dude but it really is me Garden Andy, and if you haven't discovered pandora.com yet then you are about to open the door to the vast world of musical exploration.
http://www.pandora.com check it out now bitches

pandora
i will write a beware article against it
i'm drunk now
but I'll opt an example
there's one of the cider twins that's
more handsome
more endearing
more primary
(didn't elvis' twin die at birth)
genes
i hate my brother with all my heart
this week i've listened to a fuckwad
of Screaming Lord Sutch
Maybe not an originator
but an original mind
when he died the Raving Monster Loony Party
elected a cat
a jump I can't see Pandora making.

Burial - Untrue (LP)
there's a rather scholarly review here where Derrida gets some props.
Never read the fella beyond an obituary but the phrase 'sonic hauntology' I'm liking. Sums up the sound of the Panda Bear album, which takes the top spot of 2007's albums for me.
My primary reason for pasting the link though,is to point in the way of the
David Thomas Broughton Weight of my Love MP3.
hands up song of the year.
imagine anthony and the jonsons singing about being too skint to score a Gregg's pasty, I mean that's the actual fucking lyric, and that song happens to be a colossal headwreck heartwrencher of lost love.
Untrue.

I am on an anti-folk kick. Jeffrey Lewis' cover album, '12 Crass Songs' is amazing, amazing, amazing. And Kimya Dawson (of Moldy Peaches fame). She is one super cool mamma, so I wrote her an email to see if she would like to come play at the Forest next time she's around. Maybe she will come? She played at the Common Place a couple of years ago, so we'll see.

Andy and I saw this guy supporting Rodrigo y Gabriella last year and after seeing him perform I had to sneek off before the main act to ensure I got his CD.

With hints of acoustic, pop, reggae, folk and latin music his sound is great, but it's his lyrics that hooked me - the guy is a poet.

His website is also worth a look - check out his 'Love Speaks' initiative to help promote not for profit organisations at his gigs, or to read about the Mosaic Project - created to empower children and promote the building of communities across differences in the US.

It makes me smile that his website encourages his fans to make audiorecordings of his gigs for the purpose of personal use or trading between fans.

Ooh that's new to me, I'll look into it.
This weekend I've been doing a spot of garden work for a friend which incorporated numerous flytipping trips.
We picked up a huge box of tapes from a boot sale all for a quid, which was largely filled with indie also-rans from the early nineties,most of which went the way of the tip.
Pick of the bunch.
Electronic by Electronic.The car laid low with rubble, windows wound down, an impossibly sunny day - those synths sounded right.
Also heard a Radio 4 documentary on the late comic/poet Hovis Presleya sort of poor-man's Stephen Wright but with his own occasional genius
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009fwpf"It's true what they say about women, it's an irregular plural." Hovis Presley

It was Amadou et Mariam, AKA the blind couple from Mali. The album Dimanche a Bamako, produced by Manu Chau is pretty hot.

I'm just listening to Zebda's 'Le bruit et le odeur' just now (Zebda is the arabic word for butter, beure is verlang - backwards slang - for arab in France). There is a sample of Chirac saying it isn't racist when honest French workers complain about the noise and the smell of the unemployed sponger immigrants and their 20 children living downstairs.

Half Man Half BiscuitEvery last song.
I have a habit.
Theatre critic Ken Tynan once said he could never love a woman who didn't love Look Back In Anger.
I think I feel the same way about Half Man Half Biscuit
which is a knowingly narrow field but their breadth of reference is anything but.
Andy Kershaw described them as the most important British Folk band since The Clash - which in itself is a superb sentence to say.
They demand a deep reading and keep revealing importance.
Every morning I wake up with a different lyric lodged in my head and this makes me chuffed.
Three other things
They improve with each new release.
They are playing Edinburgh in October
and I now think I have their complete output on a hard-drive so if you fancy you might be partial, I can make available two chocker MP3 CDs for the price of a PM.
Heavily hungover stepping down Clerk Street after spending 24 hours in slippers 'cos I locked myself out fetching ingredients for last night's tea, now, this very morning I found myself singing away, loud with emphasis and glee.
Hedley VerityesqueShe passed into folkloreTrod on lines in the pavement and said"There's no room for enigmas in built up areas"

Been listening to a bit of Jeffrey Lewis, bit of Leanord Cohen, and King Creosote.

Also Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - A letter From God To Man....its fuckin good, great lyrics.
Their song "Thou Shalt Always Kill" is bloody good too. The "just a band" bit in it is great....you'll know the bit that i mean if you listen to it. if you like politically tinged hip-hop you may enjoy this. if you don't enjoy politically tinged hip-hop you may enjoy this anyway.
If you like them then I beg you to listen to Sage Francis, any song, any album this guy is officially the best rapper ever (Fat Lip from Pharcyde is a close 2nd). (this is my personal opinion, I don't want to start any West side vs East side gang wars or anything).
Peace out beeyatches.

I think Half Man Half Biscuit get overlooked all too often as novelty.
See also: Shaggy.
Fat Lip is a geezer - there's that great interview on the Spike Jonze DVD where he's running around in a nappy. That makes me happy, also.

WHAT'S UP, FATLIP?...sing it with me Dai preferably running around in a nappy, a dirty raincoat, learing at women whilst drinking a bottle of Brandy and being hit in the nuts by kids.

Fatlip]Feelin' downtroddenFresh kid turned rottenI can't believe I'm like E then I'm coppinOver the years seems like I'm gettin' dumberReminiscing to a time when I was younger with a hungerFull a dreams, determination, self-esteem But now it seems they hesitate to be on my teamYou know the routine, when you winnin' and grinnin'All up in your face, like they was which you from the beginnin'But on the flipside,When you washed up like a riptideFools clown 'bout how you slipped and let shit slideBeside the factMy voice is wackClowns is runnin' around, talkin' 'bout I smoke crackAin't got no homies that got my backYeah I'm a brotha, but some times I don't feel blackMy girl is whiteMy game idn't tight Niggas who ain't seen me in a while be like "Dude, you aight?"

Who am I kiddin', who am I foolin'When they be like "What's up Fatlip?," and I say "Coolin'"

Blowin' like a sucka almost every dayIn the back of your mind you prob'ly thinkin' I was gayBut naw, I'm just a bitch ass niggaThe type that get jacked above the ribs ass niggaSee I been a loser just about all my lifeType that try turn a ho to a housewifeWhat do you expectI give respectAnd feel for hoes niggas keep in checkI'm far from hardEmotionally scarredOn Pico BoulevardI was regarded as a retardI make myself sickGet on my own nervesImmature, insecure,Grown up nerdHas-been MC On a label that's unstableChoppin' bliggy on a table

Who am I kiddin', who am I foolin'When they be like "What's up Fatlip?," and I say "Coolin'"Who am I kiddin', who am I foolin'When they be like "What's up Fatlip?," and I say "Coolin'"